What Does Psalm 78:15 Mean in the King James?
He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The split does not create the water; it uncovers the deep source beneath the stone.
THE MEANING
Your wilderness holds this image: stone opens, and drink comes out as though drawn from the great depths. The verse locates provision in a depth already there, disclosed when the rock is cleaved.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sealed surface does not prove that no sustaining depth lies beneath it.
THE ROOT
יְבַקַּע
yəvaqqaʿ
GROWS FROM
בקע
To split open, cleave, or break through.
“clave” in this verse is yəvaqqaʿ. The Hebrew בָּקַע names a split made through a barrier. The same root describes the deep’s fountains breaking open and the sea being divided; here, the cleft exposes water for drink, so the opening reveals a source rather than creating one.
ALSO GROWS
baqa: In Genesis 7:11, the fountains of the great deep are “broken up.”
בָּקַע
The same root joins the opening of the deep with the cleaving of the rock.
baqa: In Exodus 14:21, the waters of the sea “were divided.”
בָּקַע
The root describes a passage opened through what had been a barrier.
THE PATTERN
What appears sealed can become provision when it opens and reveals a source within.
Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.THE THREAD
And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.Isaiah uses the same root, בָּקַע, for the rock’s opening. Its waters gush out, letting the shared word reveal the cleaving as the moment a hidden source becomes visible.
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